NOTE: What’s below is unedited. Please read the introduction to the previously posted piece before plowing through this article.

My Brecht By Myself
by OX

“‘We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.’ That’s a Native American proverb, Papi. I love it. [Pause.] I’m afraid there’s going to be nothing left worth living for if you keep spending heartbeats with these writers and activists who don’t see the need to work together in a fresh way.” — the author’s ten-year-old son

My Uncle Max once recited a version of the following to me, tremulously, in the dark:

“Nowadays, anyone who wishes to combat lies and ignorance and to write the truth must overcome at least five difficulties. He must have the courage to write the truth when truth is everywhere opposed; the keenness to recognize it, although it is everywhere concealed; the skill to manipulate it as a weapon; the judgment to select those in whose hands it will be effective; and the cunning to spread the truth among such persons. These are formidable problems for writers living under Fascism, but they exist also for those writers who have fled or been exiled; they exist even for writers in countries where civil liberty prevails.” –Bertolt Brecht

Today, as darkness descends more deeply, I tweak the above (below). For I have been working with left-of-center writers and others for over a year now on an unprecedented plan for action, and their ineffectiveness in the real world is palpable, my observations, I believe, instructive. The writers have been able to write what they want, no problem. They are marginalized if threatening, but they continue to write and write and write. And lecture and lecture. And participate in one summit after another, one conference after another. Marching in circles with placards on occasion, getting their heads bashed in, and dragged off to the hoosegow once in a blue moon too, albeit very few. They encourage people to sign petitions, email and make phone calls. But all the many obsolete paradigms are moving us all at an arthritic snail’s pace to… nowhere. The writers, for the most part, are helping us to document ourselves to death. [Which ain't to say that I don't savor their sweetness.]

“Nowadays, anyone who wishes to keep ignorance from compounding ignorance and push for necessary institutional change must overcome at least four difficulties. She must make the time to discuss new paradigms for action leisurely, with lots of time allowed for in-depth Q&A, without giving in to the temptation to get on with her schedule of errands, obligations; the keenness to not confuse her organization’s need for fund raising with the public’s need to be shown how they can create a watershed in history without spending a dime; the acknowledgment that resignation, apathy, cynicism, ignorance, territorial trauma (ego) and atomization, not the “obvious opposition,” provide our primary challenges; and the recognition (expressed in behavior) that we have serious deadlines on several counts.”

The words in the italicized paragraph directly above come from the top of my head, after working 24×8 for over a year with the imprimaturs of high profile figures worldwide such as the late Howard Zinn, Derrick Jensen, Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, Marie Trigona (Argentina), Devinder Sharma (India), Afshin Rattansi (Iran), Henry Giroux (Canada), Jennifer Loewenstein (Gaza/U.S.), Gustavo Esteva (Mexico) and many others.

I am NOT attached to any particular project, but something must be embraced in solidarity on a macroscopic level immediately. So that we don’t continue to work exclusively in our beautiful little corners.

I don’t really want to spend my last days savoring my Brecht by myself when we could be saving the world.

Blessings in solidarity,
Richard Martin Oxman
831-688-8038 in Santa Cruz County, California at any hour or aptosnews@gmail.com

“There is a difference between documentation and action, of course. Everyone knows that. What everyone doesn’t know — obviously — is that documentation in too many cases is being embraced in lieu of taking action. Action which might lead to securing the reins of power.” — the author’s Uncle Max